Darian MacKinnon says he wants to pay back manager Martin Canning and his Hamilton teammates after his red-card against Dundee.

MacKinnon had a moment of madness as a studs-up challenge to the thigh of Dundee’s Thomas Konrad led to his dismissal.

The combative midfielder says that the challenge wasn’t as bad as it looked, but he knows in the modern game it was one he was never going to get away with.

“It wasn’t one of my finest moments,” he admitted.

“The gaffer gave me a bit of a talking to and explained it wasn’t acceptable. I owe him one so hopefully I can give him a good performance on Sunday.

“I know it didn’t look like it on the telly, but I genuinely wasn’t trying to hurt him. I was going for the ball.

“It was only my second red card in four seasons here so it’s not something I generally do, but I need to cut it out.

“Mind you, me getting sent off made the boys play better!

“I know you can’t do things like that but you do learn from them - especially when the manager and Bouzy (Guillaume Beuzelin) come down hard on you.

“You have to play reserve games, it’s not a nice place when you get sent off. I’m just glad the boys got a point out of it.

“The BBC cameras killed me. We have our own cameras and the other angle didn’t look as bad.

“But I need to accept it. It probably was a red card.

“Sometimes my haircut gets me a yellow card before I make a tackle! I’d grow it but with this baldy head I’ve got to go with what I’ve got!

“It’s just the way my game is, being a so-called hard tackler instead of a technical player like Ali (Crawford). I’m in there to do the dogging so the first chance they get they try to tame me.

“The first tackle is a yellow usually, but I need to accept it and get on with it.”

The referee who sent MacKinnon off against Dundee was Willie Collum, who will also take charge of this Sunday’s game against Aberdeen.

Collum is no stranger to controversy when officiating at New Douglas Park, most notably against Sunday’s opponents last season and against Hearts earlier this campaign, but MacKinnon defended the whistler.

He said: “It’s Willie again this weekend but to be fair to him he’s one of the good refs. I like him. You can to talk to him through the game.

“If you shout at him, he doesn’t want to know. But if you talk to him he’ll explain his decisions. If he’s got it wrong he will tell you.

“He gets a hard time but he is a nice guy and a good ref.

“Hearts felt hard done by and they lost that game as well, so they are going to have a go.

“Aberdeen were not happy with him here last time - maybe it’s this place!

“There were a couple of goals not given but it’s hard for him without goal-line technology. We couldn’t tell if the ball had crossed the line so it’s difficult for him.

“We played well against Aberdeen a couple of times last season. If we press them high then we’ll have a chance.

“They’ll be saying the same thing though. They’ll be coming here to win but we are after the same thing.

“I was sub when we beat them 3-0 last year. We played well that night. It was one of the highlights of the season along with the Celtic game.

“Hopefully we can do the same again this time.”